Who should be the Packers’ backup quarterback this season?

NFL DRAFT COVERAGE including the Packers' picks, a gallery of top prospects, mock drafts and more.">
NFL DRAFT COVERAGE including the Packers' picks, a gallery of top prospects, mock drafts and more.">

NFL DRAFT COVERAGE including the Packers' picks, a gallery of top prospects, mock drafts and more.

Green Bay — Little in Ben Gardner's football life has gone according to form.

As a junior at Homestead, Gardner ruefully remembered being "manhandled" by "some big boys" from Arrowhead as a 195-pound defensive end in the 2007 WIAA Division 1 state championship game.

By the next year, Gardner had put on 35 pounds and did the manhandling as the Highlanders gained revenge by beating Arrowhead for the state title.

Gardner didn't have a major-college scholarship offer until 10 days before signing day when Stanford's Jim Harbaugh swooped in from the West Coast acting on a recommendation from the coach's father, Jack.

Despite posting 17½ sacks and making all-Pacific 12 in 2011 (second team), 2012 (second team) and 2013 (first team) for the Cardinal, Gardner wasn't among the 335 players invited to the NFL scouting combine in February.

Not only that but Gardner underwent surgery on Halloween to repair a season-ending torn pectoral muscle.

Under blue skies and temperatures nearing 80 degrees, Gardner's football career probably was on the line March 20 when representatives from almost every NFL team gathered for Stanford pro day in Palo Alto, Calif.

Having met challenges as a prep and collegian, Gardner did so again as an aspiring pro. His 40-yard dash time was pedestrian (4.95 seconds) but his vertical jump (39½ inches), broad jump (10-2) and two shuttle runs were unexpectedly exceptional.

"His shuttles were great," an NFC personnel director said last week. "He just didn't run fast. Everything else was off the charts."

Gardner visited San Diego on Tuesday and then San Francisco and Oakland over the weekend. In keeping with his unorthodox career path, Gardner isn't even sure what position he'll be playing in the pros.

At Stanford, Gardner played right end in a 3-4 defense coordinated in 2010 by Vic Fangio (now with the 49ers) and in 2011 by Jason Tarver (now with the Raiders). Facially, he's a dead-ringer for all-pro defensive end Jared Allen.

"I used to rock the mullet the same way he did," Gardner said. "I don't have that anymore but he's a guy, as a defensive lineman, you try to model your game after."

Gardner, who stands 6 foot 4, usually played at about 280 to absorb and beat blocks. His forte, however, was rushing inside on passing downs.

When injury struck to cost him a second Rose Bowl appearance, Gardner made the decision to drop 15 pounds. Thus, some scouts didn't know quite what to make of it when the run-stopping defensive end showed up weighing 262 and asking to do linebacker drills.

Amazingly enough, Gardner's times (4.24 seconds) in the 20-yard shuttle and three-cone run (6.98) surpassed the combine clockings (4.43, 7.27) of none other than Jadeveon Clowney.

"The feedback afterward from scouts was really positive," Gardner said. "I think people were surprised to see how well I can move at a lighter weight."

Gardner is holding now at 265 pounds, confident he can bulk up to 290 to play end in a 3-4, trim down to 255 to play outside linebacker in a 3-4 or split the difference to play end or three-technique tackle in a 4-3.

"For a guy like me, they just call me a tweener," said Gardner, who posted a 3.0 grade-point average in earning a business-related degree.

"There's a lot of guys who were called tweeners that ended up being Pro Bowl players. It's ultimately what you do once you get in camp."

The snub by the combine angered Gardner as did the decision by Wisconsin then-coach Bret Bielema to offer preferred walk-on status rather than a scholarship five years ago.

He was the most obscure name on Stanford's 24-man recruiting class of 2009. By the end, he won the Cardinal's most outstanding senior award.

Several scouts project Gardner as a free agent, possibly a seventh-round draft choice. He's hoping for the middle rounds, but if free agency is his entry that's OK, too.

Now fully cleared to play football, Gardner is confident that his hard-charging, worker-bee mentality together with the NFL-style coaching that he received at Stanford will make for a sustained pro career.

"I had to work my way up the ladder at Stanford, and now I find myself back at the bottom working my way up again," Gardner said. "You've got to love the game. I'm excited about the challenge.

"You can never have too many guys that can rush the passer. If you can rush the passer there's a spot for you in the league, and that's what I do best."

About Bob McGinn

Bob McGinn is a beat writer and columnist covering the Green Bay Packers. A six-time Wisconsin state sportswriter of the year, he won the Dick McCann Memorial Award in 2011 for long and distinguished reporting on pro football.